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Vols: 2018 _ ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2018 _Volst "A GRAMMAR OF WOTUN Reviewed by Benjamin Brosig, (Academia Sinica) > Brika Sandman, 2016, A Grammar of Wutun, Helsinki: University of Helsinki, Doctoral dissertation, xii, 370 p.* [http://bitly/2CojMCY, accessed 13 December 2017] ‘An occasional problem when doing research on the languages of northern China is that while there are medium-sized structu historical, and contemporary grammars for many local non-Si varieties (eg, Todaeva 1966, Chen and Cinggeltei 1986, and Fried 2010 for Bonan), the same does not seem to be equally true for their Sinitic contact varieties. A Grammar of Wutun, a dissertation written by Erika Sandman at the two departments of World Culture and ‘Modern Languages at the University of Helsinki, helps close this gap for what has since Chen (1981) been known as one of the most idiosyncratic varieties of North-Western Mandarin. This language formed as part of the Amdo Sprachbund in intensive contact with ‘Amdo Tibetan and, to some extent, Qinghai Bonan. A Grammar of Wtun is based on Basic Linguistic Theory (Dixon 1997, 2010) and tends to make use of well-established classics for individual linguistic domains (eg, Lamprecht 1994 for information structure, Yap etal. 2011 for nominalization). Based on a corpus of approximately 1,900 naturally attested and 1,100 elicited clauses mostly collected by the author herself it first describes the sociolinguistic and research context (1-18), the phonology (19-41, following Janhunen et al. 2008) and word classes (42-175, nouns, ‘verbs, minor) of Wutun. After attested morphological forms are thus accounted for, it continues by describing functional domains such as aspect (176-205); evidentiality and egophoricity (206-239); clausal ‘word order, valeney, and information structure (240-286); clause- ‘Brosig, Benjamin, 20:8. A Grammar of Wutun, Asian Highlands Perspectives si:413-418, * htps://helda helsinki. 8 handle/101g8/168427, acessed 13 December 43 Volgi__2018 __ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2018 Vols ‘ype-related morphological mechanisms for interrogating, ordering, ‘and negating (287-310); and clause connection (g11-348). The book closes with glossed and translated transcriptions of three short procedural monologues (349-361). In the nominal domain, Wutun exhibits an interesting distinction in the plural domain. The suffix -jhege can indicate either ‘numbers of approximately 3 to 4 or generic groups (eg Thoma:jhege “a few students’ / students (in general)’ when following regular nouns, but it refers to non-colletive groups with personal pronouns (ngu- ege each of us individually), Itcontrasts with -<dera ~-durwused for ‘delimited groups with regular nouns (ren-dera ‘the people (eg. ofthis country), and with -mu, denoting collectives when attached to pronouns (nga-mu ‘we (as a group); 48-50, 71-72). Wutun has also developed a case system with a zero nominative and five marked cases. Particularly notable among these are the sociative in -liangge which ‘grammaticalized from ‘two! (cf. SM ling ge ‘two') (56-61) and the “optional dative” in~ha that is used to mark several types of non-actors and functions as a form of differential case marking conditioned by {information structure (277-286). ‘The evidential system is approximately what one would expect for most Tibetic varieties, with the standard division between egophoric, sensory/inferential and factual, and a distinct system for ‘quotative/hearsay. This cannot, however, be said of the relatively complex aspectual system. Sandman analyses it as consisting of two sets of markers, namely primary aspect markers that indicate temporally bounded situations and secondary aspect markers that indicate materially bounded situations (ef. Lindstedt eg. 2001). The primary aspect markers are perfective -lio, progressive-habitual -di, patient-oriented resultative -ma and "prospective" -2he (which for ‘most ends and purposes seems to act as a form of non-obligatory future marker rather than a prospective in the strict sense ofthe word, which would indicate a future development as determined by a previous state of affairs). The secondary aspect markers are {incompletive -a, completive -gu and agent-oriented resultaive -she. ‘These aspect markers can combine into chains of up to three markers, of which the first is always secondary and the last always primary (though secondary aspect markers ean occasionally be used on theit “44 Vols: 2018 _ ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2018 __Volst ‘own). Among primary aspect markers, the combinations progressive- perfective and perfective-prospective are attested, while among secondary aspect markers, there are the combinations incompletive~ completive, agent-oriented resultative-completive and ineompletive- agent-oriented resultative. The type of interaction that ensues is nicely illustrated by (1): (1) ngu guna dadada——_jategutio 456 356-00 just ‘meetiNCOMPL-COMPL-PAY "T Just visited himyher (the visit lasted for some time, was ‘completed a moment ago and is over now). (xiawu Dongzhou) [192] _Aproblem of this description is that it heavily focuses on overt suffixes and their combinatorie, but only pays limited attention to zero stems (which are attested and used in multiple functions, including future) and the way in which verbal aktionsart might influence the choice of secondary (and, somewhat less crucially for the overall analysis, primary) aspect markers. For instance, Sandman compares (2) and (3), arguing thatthe form in (2) "denotes terminated, temporary states ‘that do not involve change across time," while the form in (3) “denotes ‘terminated processes that do involve change across time.” This is not obvious at all from the glossing of ddo as ‘think’ and tin as 'be sick’, ‘though tin is indeed glossed as ‘hurt’ and 'get ill elsewhere (83, 218), suggesting an inceptive aktionsart. Occasional reference to what {informants considered impossible might have clarified @ lot in this section, but since Sandman relied on no more than three informants throughout, her very sparing use of negative evidence is fully justified. @)ngu nl tal boytit do-terio 41s 2s come NEGreachseninr —_thinksNOOMPL-PRY "thought you wil nt come in time’ (Xiawu Dongzhou) [191] @) nee tino 186.08, _be sick PROGR-V "Las suffering from illness. (Kiawu Dongzhou) [194] 45 Volst__ 2018 _ ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2018 Volt ‘Sandman (278) notes that "multiple aspect marking systems that resemble the Wutun system seem to be crosslinguistically quite “uncommon,” though at least for Central Asia and the Amdo region ‘there is an alternative explanation, namely that most descriptions of aspect systems are less extensive than hers. While detailed elicitation ‘on aspect (see e., Tatevosoy 2002 with a focus on aktionsart or ‘Molochieva 2010 and of course Sandman's own work with a focus on combinatorics) is possible, most regional grammars simply lack mn this domain. And while e.g, Santa might indeed detailed description of aspect in Eastern Yugur could plausibly reveal ‘a system that is only slightly less complex than Wutuan (ef. Nugteren 2003:278-282, Brosig and Skribnik forthcoming:904). "The chapters on clause structure and clause connection mostly detail the expected picture of Turko-Mongolic word order and ppostpositions, but there is also some dedicated discussion on several ‘morphemes mainly related to information structure. The chapter on interrogation, negation and imperatives, in turn, relates to both clause types and verbal categories. The structural tatonomy of question types jn which A-not-Actype questions as a subtype of polar questions is distinguished from alternative questions is very convincing, and the correlation between factual evidentiality and rhetorical questions is quite notable, The negation system is close to Standard Mandarin, ‘though it has started making a distinction between negative copulas ‘and prefixes. The imperative system is described in extreme brevity, but exhibits @ number of interesting features, including first person [plural] imperative based on lai'eome’ third person imperatives from. ‘causatives [plus zero] and a marked “familiar” second person imperative whieh is Less polite than zero, Next to describing the language, Sandman also draws ‘comparison to other varieties. She consistently cites forms from standard Mandarin, and occasionally draws comparisons to North- ‘Western Mandarin and its varieties, to Bonan and other Southern ‘Mongolic languages, to Amdo Tibetan, and to Turkic Salar. Overall, A Grammar of Wutun, in this form or another, is ‘bound to become an indispensable resource forall researchers nto the languages of the Amdo Sprachbund and a reliable source for any “416+ Vols: 2018 __ ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPBCTIVES 2018 __Volst ‘ypologist. Due tots easily accessible styl, it might also function as a reference work for native speakers, though English may constitute a significant barrier. Itis very much hoped, however, that Sandman will continue her excellent research work on Wutun, especially by widening ‘the material and documentary basis that translate into an even more fine-grained description of usage patterns and functions. REFERENCES Brosig, Benjamin and Elena Skribnik. 2018. Evidentiality in Mongolic. ntiality in Mongolic in Alexandra Aikhenvald (ed) Oxford Handbook of Bvidentiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 554-579. (Cen Nai Siyung [Chen Naixiong]. 1981. (tin kele yariyan-u tugai anggan-u gayilta (A First Tentative Sketch of the Wutun Language]. Obiir monggul-un yeke surgaguli-yin monggul kele big sudulqu tasug-un erdem sinjlgen-i dgillel 016. Kele bicig-iin erdem sinjlegen-it dgilleliin tegibiiri [Scientific papers 016 of the department for the study of Mongolian language and writing at Inner Mongolia University: A collection of papers on Mongolian language and writing] 4: $4 [Baoan and Mongolian]. Huhéhaot® F # & # Naiménggi réomin chibansh 79H FAT AL 0 AL [nner ‘Mongolia People's Press] Dixon, RMW. 1997. The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. __- 2010. Basie Linguistic Theory. Volume 1: Methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Field, Kenneth. A Grammatical Overview of Santa Mongolian. University of California-Santa Barbara. PhD diss. Fried, Robert. 2010. A Grammar of Bao'an Tw. State University of New York at Buffalo. PhD diss. http://bitly/2BgARMm, accessed 13 December 2017. 417 Volsi__ 2018 __ASIAN/IGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES __v0x8__ Volt Janhunen, Juba, Marja Peltomaa, Erika Sandman, and Xiawu ‘Dongzhou. 2008, Wutun. Miinchen: Lincom Europa. Lambrecht, Knud 1994. Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic, Focus, and the Mental Representation of Discourse Referents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lindstedt, Jouko 2001. Tense and aspect in Martin Haspelmath (ed) Language Typology and Language Universals: An International Handbook, Vol 1. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 768-783. Molochieva, Zarina. 2010, Tense, Aspect, and Mood in Chechen. Leipzig: Universitit Leipzig. PhD diss. Nugteren, Hans. 2003. Shira Yugur in Juha Janhunen (ed) The ‘Mongolie languages. London: Routledge, 265-286. ‘Tatevosov, Sergei. 2002. The Parameter of Actionality. Linguistic Typology 6:317-401. Todaeva, BulaS Hojtiemna. 1966. Baoan'skii yazyk [The Baoan Language]. Moskva: Nauka. Yap, Fong Ha, Karen Grunow-Hirsta, and Janick Wrona. 2011. Introduction: Nominalization strategies in Asian languages in Fong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Harsta and Janick Wrona (eds) Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and Typological Perspectives. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1-57. 48